sunday grace: the magical month

{bits of october, 2009-2016}

october.  let it transform you.

mosaic monday: the farm market

my local farm market is reaching its final days as we move deeper into autumn.  i did so much better this year at getting to the market each week (with the exception of photo #5 here...i overslept that saturday).  more importantly, i made an effort to explore new plants to eat:  jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, baby ginger.  we are lucky to have a few small organic farms worked by beautiful people in our area.  just last week, i ate a sweet potato grown by holly at island creek farm and it was the BEST SWEET POTATO EVER.  i love my market and will miss it over winter.

a good year

twentytwelve:  ten things i liked about you

1. there was courage to leave the job that was smothering me
2. there was something better and brighter and way more me to replace it
3. working with meg:  more greens, more breath, more space for what's next
4. walks in the woods with my favorite person and a corgi who loves to hike
5. yogaville and yoga festivals and just plain yoga
6. kindreds
7. solstice fires, new years day picnics, country roads
8. letting go
9. becoming vegetarian
10. the karma garden

thank you.

see previous year-end-slash-gratitude-slash-foot-shots-collections here.

(p.s.  those pointy-toed ballet flats get some mileage!)

dear universe

thank you in advance for my beautiful, life-changing, soul-blossoming journey to india.

and the amazing new job.

namaste,
me

{amazing photo credits here.}

s u m m e r

you're here!

mosaic monday

{see flickr creds here.}

mosaic monday

the love week edition:  please love on the artists here.

mosaic monday

the new year resolutions edition:

1. do yoga
2. eat whole, organic, local
3. learn something new
4. nurture relationships
5. embrace worthiness
6. capture beauty
7. practice silence and stillness
8. go
9. celebrate

please go here for photography credits.

happy monday friends.  it's a new day.

i was here

i love the week between christmas and new year's day.  there's a magical pull to the future while looking back with gratitude and (mostly) satisfaction.  how do you acknowlege this transition? 

i do it with 'standing here' self-portraits.  i try to take at least one per month and really enjoy looking back at the places i've been and the space i inhabited.  some of them are fun and flighty and some really put me back in the emotion of that moment.

this year my feet touched both solid ground and undulating funhouse floors.  i slipped a few times and had to call at least one time-out to lie down; but mostly i stood confidently facing all the love, regret, beauty, acceptance, rejection, grace and fear.

some of the best places i stood in 2010:

• my home.  the home that loves me.
• my garden.  day or night, sun or stars, flora or snow, she always whispers, "do it."
• the cold pacific, who welcomed me home to california.
• the warm atlantic, who showed me i could stand solid even with shifting sand beneath my feet.
• bikram yoga class.
• with the most beautiful, talented, graceful women.  feeling like i belonged.
• at the door.  the same door i hovered around throughout 2009.  i'm still standing here wondering what's on the other side, trying to plan for all the possibilities and pitfalls.  i am slowly moving toward courage and away from the misconception that i can tip one toe into the unknown while the other foot holds firm in the certain.

thank you for standing with me.  where should we go in 2011?

today i am grateful for

having to make this choice:  paris or prague?

if you've been around here a while, you know i've been crazy-planning my paris trip.  as usual in the curious casa, something came up to get in the way.  but this time, it was another destination...ken is taking his theatre students to the prague quadrennial exhibition of theatre design. 

at first i was all pissy.  and i was resentful because ken suggested we just do both (oh, the unlimited summer thinking of a teacher...). 

then i got a grip.

and i remembered the 24 year old me who sat in the public library reading travel books.  and i reminded myself that i'm trying to be more flexible and spontaneous and adventurous.  and then i thought that prague seems like a darker, less-cliche version of paris, so it just might be the city for me.

i am so thankful that i get to go to places i used to just dream about. 

{flickr artists here.}

every time the high begins to fade

i think of the beautiful, talented, singing-while-painting, authentic, hula-hooping, margarita-sharing, downdogging, moongazing, amazingly creative women at squam-by-the-sea i am lucky to call friends. 

and my heart fills with love.

thank you mindy, sarah, tracey, kelly, michelle, jenica, ada, sally, melissa, mccabe, stef, jen, jennifer, jessica, elizabeth, michelle, mira, bella, samantha, arabella, the fabulous beach divas and every other amazing artist who left their footprint on the sand at nags head and their soulprint on my life.

(wow, i used the word soulprint.  i am high.)

paris

a mosaic monday full of little wishes.  please honor the artists here.

mosaic monday

good morning beauties! 

last week a friend shared this video and i watched it over and over.  and now i can't stop thinking about hooping.  i had a hoop tucked away in the basement (purchased a few years ago in the brief train-simon-to-be-a-circus-dog phase).  for some reason, i thought it would be a breeze to wrap it around my hips and start swirling away like when i was ten.  umm...not so much.  but the practice is so much fun!  i'm totally cracking myself up over here with the hooping shenanigans.

thank you thank you thank you for all your lovely comments on sunday's post.  this place is always a safe soft spot to land because of you. 

i hope your weeks are filled with sun, fun and laughter.

{photo credits here.}

mosaic monday

there's a subtle summer static in the air.  it's making me smile with anticipation.

{flickr artists here.}

mosaic monday

i don't know what has gotten into me...i can't get enough of soft tones and (eek!) pastels!  so i'm just going to yield to the attraction and embrace this quieter, but no less powerful, version of beauty.  just like these lovely flickr artists did.

happy soft + pretty monday.

mosaic monday

dearest spring,

on second thought, i may need a few more moments in the soft and tender. i know i asked for an explosion of color and energy, but you and i both know it was for no more than a distraction. i will wait here, hidden in the pale subtlety of your down beats.

love,
lisa

{flickr artists here.}

holi mosaic monday!

thank you all for your love and support during the month of love. I'm so happy to have friends visiting and always for the love and insight of your brilliant minds and hearts. we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

and it's holi today!

I am hereby declaring that the western calendar is way too slow for me and choose to believe that today (TODAY!) is the first day of spring. let's make this week one of vibrant color and hopefulness, shall we?

and today, I have put this one on the list: participate in a holi festival. in india.

and did you see that hunk of glowing moon last night?

(please see my flickr faves for the holi photographers, in my excitement, I forgot to post the mosaic with credits!)

a little flickr love

from my recent favorites. I love it when there is an unintentional thread once the images are grouped. clearly, I've been loving me some red lately.

{photographer credits here.}

2009: grounded

{at least I like to think so...}

etsy blue

this weekend I really kicked into holiday mode: the tree is up and alight with color and I even decorated the blog. some of my shopping is done but I like to save some for the month of december. the balance of gift-giving is to be exclusively from local, handmade or vintage sources. etsy continues to be my shades-of-blue shopping paradise:

• perfect teal bag
• coasters are a great hostess gift
• peace on earth is not just a wish
• love a mini poncho
• snowflurry baubles
• my new collection obsession: midcentury homegoods
• some days this is how I feel
• rainbow whale!
• hello luvah!
• funk by my beautiful friend kelly
• more vintage beauties for the home
• and more baubles {there's no such thing as too many}
• sweet blue chickadees
• serious swooning over this turquoise bike
• for all the baubles
• blue cuff

santa, if you're reading, any of these will do just fine.

happy monday sweet friends!